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Seattle Sounders FC midfielder Osvaldo Alonso was forced to exit Seattle’s scoreless draw with FC Dallas with a hamstring strain, but despite the injury, the Sounders are confident that their midfield engine will be back in time for the Western Conference Championship series with the LA Galaxy.

The injury came in the 56th minute when Alonso crumbled to the ground, clutching his leg after a seemingly harmless play in midfield. Minutes later, the Cuban midfielder was removed and replaced by Micheal Azira.

According to reports out of Seattle, Sounders FC head coach Sigi Schmid noted that Alonso is unlikely to train for the remainder of the week, but should be back in time for the first leg of the Western Conference Championship at StubHub Center on Nov. 23.

"We'll know more as we move forward each day," Schmid told reporters after practice on Tuesday. "But our expectation is that he'll be able to make it back for the game in LA. We'll go through the protocol and obviously the rest of this week we're going to keep him off the field, try to get the treatment in and hopefully back on the field next week."

CARSON, Calif. –A right hamstring strain forced Leonardo to make an early exit during the LA Galaxy’s 5-0 victory over Real Salt Lake, but the club’s coaching staff are confident that the Brazilian could be back in time to play a role in their Western Conference Championship clash with Seattle Sounders FC.

Leonardo went down in the 37th minute, forcing third-year defender Tommy Meyer to come on for the remainder of last Sunday's game. Although the injury was severe enough that the Brazilian center back needed to be stretchered off the field, the Galaxy coaching staff believe that the time in between series will allow ample time for Leonardo to return to fitness.

“Two weeks is good for both teams certainly and we would think that both teams are going to be healthy when they meet at StubHub Center,” said Bruce Arena. “He’s working [to get back to full fitness] so we’ll see.”

Added Associate head coach Dave Sarachan, “Two weeks [between games] is a good thing for a guy like him, but we’ll know more as we get through the next few days. I think there is a good chance that he would be back for the series, be it game one or game two.”

Real Salt Lake traveled more than a hundred fans to their Western Conference Semifinal second leg against the LA Galaxy, but the Utahns were forced to drive back in sadness after their 5-0 thumping to LA.

The LA Galaxy's old foe, Seattle Sounders FC will stand in-between LA and another trip to the MLS Cup after the Sounders advanced past FC Dallas on Monday. Fresh off their own triumph over Real Salt Lake that saw LA hang five goals on the Claret-and-Cobalt, the Galaxy returned to training on Tuesday with the Sounders in mind.

"We were hoping for this as well. It's going to be a very good series and be very similar to what we saw a couple weeks back. May the better team win," said forward Alan Gordon. "We're focused and we want to put in a good performance against a good team."

But after the Sounders won the Supporters' Shield by defeating the Galaxy last month is there a need for LA to exact any revenge?

"We never approach games like it's revenge," said head coach Bruce Arena. "That's child psychology. We go out to play hard and win regardless of who we're playing."

CARSON, Calif. – The LA Galaxy advanced to the Western Conference Finals for the fifth time in six years on Sunday with their 5-0 victory over Real Salt Lake, but their opponent in that series remains a mystery.

LA will play the winner of the FC Dallas/Seattle Sounders FC series which will be decided on Monday at CenturyLink Field. Seattle need only a victory or a scoreless draw to advance while FC Dallas must defeat the Supporters’ Shield winners or earn a high scoring draw.

Both teams gave the Galaxy all they could handle in the regular season with LA winning the season series with Dallas 2-1-0 while splitting their three matches with Seattle 1-1-1. Given those records, is there a preference for the Galaxy as they seek to qualify for a third MLS Cup in four seasons?

Not at all.

“Between Seattle and Dallas, they gave us a lot of problems during the season so we’ll watch the game very closely tomorrow,” said hat trick hero Landon Donovan. “We’ll be sure to get proper rest this week and we’ll be ready to go.”

Even though the Galaxy had struggled results wise with a four game winless streak prior to their explosion on Sunday, LA believe their clicking at the right time as they look to their next opponent.

“I know that we haven’t had good results, but even against Seattle we had moments that were very good. We did break down at the end, but they sat back and defended against us in Seattle, which is weird,” said Robbie Rogers. “We’re confident in whomever we play be it Seattle or Dallas that we can compete.

“I think that anyone has to come into a stadium where the last team lost 5-0, they know it’s going to be difficult, but it is the playoffs so anyone can win.”

But Stefan Ishizaki, who shined in his start against Salt Lake, offered the tersest message to LA’s future opponents.

CARSON, Calif. – Robbie Keane has been hobbled with a hamstring strain for several weeks, but during the LA Galaxy’s 5-0 demolition of Real Salt Lake, you’d have no idea that the club’s dynamic Irishman was carrying a knock.

Keane scored his eighth postseason goal in just his 14th playoff appearance in the Galaxy victory while also adding three assists to bring his career total to six since joining LA in 2011. Even though Keane’s ability to exploit the spaces provided by the Salt Lake defense appeared unhindered, the Irishman admitted after the game that he was in less than stellar condition.

“Honestly, I felt awful before the game,” Keane said. “Bad back for the last two days. Bad hamstring. I wasn't feeling great until the game started moving.”

Once the whistle blew, Keane seemed fit as a fiddle as he assisted on two goals by Landon Donovan as well as Marcelo Sarvas’ lone tally to lift the Galaxy to a comfortable result over the visitors.

“We knew we had to get the first goal. In the first ten minutes, we knew we had to get the first goal. Once we got that, they opened up even more and we got the second one early as well. I think for them then the game was over,” said Keane. “They had to go for goal, so obviously there was a lot of space for us to counterattack and defend well. That's the reason we won the game. We showed intensity from the start to the finish.”

Even though Keane is carrying a number of knocks, there will be little time to rest for the Irishman who will join up with the Republic of Ireland for their upcoming Euro 2016 qualifier against Scotland at Celtic Park in Glasgow on Nov. 14 before playing the U.S. National Team four days later in London.

Keane is scheduled to return to the Galaxy prior to their Western Conference Finals first leg against the winner of the Seattle Sounders FC/FC Dallas series.

CARSON, Calif. -- The LA Galaxy booked their ticket to the Western Conference Finals for the fifth time in six years on Sunday with a 5-0 trouncing of Real Salt Lake in their Western Conference Semifinal second leg.

LA will play the winner of Monday night's match between FC Dallas and Seattle Sounders FC at CenturyLink Field. The match will take place at 7:30 p.m. PT and will air on NBCSN.

Before you pay any attention to that one, however, relive the Galaxy victory through the stunningly awesome photos from the Mora Photography crew.

CARSON, Calif. -- On Sunday, Landon Donovan became the third player in MLS history to notch a hat trick in the MLS Cup Playoffs as the LA Galaxy crushed Real Salt Lake 5-0 to advance to the Western Conference Finals.

As stellar as Donovan's showing was, viewing the performance through the lens of LAGalaxy.com's Albert Lanzillo is sure to provide a few goosebumps.

ARENA: We played well. We had a good week of training. Our expectations were that we are going win this game. Obviously, the result is a little surprising, but I totally anticipated that we would win this game.

(On Landon Donovan retiring...)

ARENA: I think it’s the right time for him to retire. He’s ready to go. He’s given it everything he has. He wants to finish this year on a high note and then get on with other things in his life.

(On the Western Conference championship...)

ARENA: I think whoever we are playing in the next games—they are going to be pretty defensive. We know that and we just need to play better. We need to be sharper on the ball. Do a better job opening teams up. We have to continue to move forward.

(On Leonardo’s play...)

ARENA: Leonardo has played very well for us. He makes a good combination with Omar [Gonzalez] and AJ plays very well on the right side of the field. I thought the timing was right to try that group in the back.

(On the rationale behind playing Stefan Ishizaki...)

ARENA: Weeks ago, when this whole series was established I knew I was going to play [Ishizaki] in the second game.

(On the team’s performance in their 5-0 win...)

ARENA: We played well .We had three goals out of the midfield out of [Marcelo] Sarvas and Landon. Defensively we were pretty solid. I think they had one really quality chance off that corner kick. I don’t think there were too many out of the run of play. The entire team defended well on the night.